Paper Mache Basketball
by celticgothhardy
Summary: Reed sat up. "We were covering the latest game of the Chelsea..." This is about the basketball game where Reed was paper mached.


Disclaimer: I do not own _CSI NY_.

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May 2008 (From Taxi remade)**

He slipped into his office to set down his gun and get back to the lab. More key pieces were flitering in from the arrow plant and he was going to join the rest for a night of processing to begin separating items. He grabbed his lab coat and started to head out. He looked at the figure still sleeping on his couch. Reed is safe. The killer's in jail. Everything's getting back to normal. He smiled and looked out to the hall. Flack and Danny were coming closer to the office holding newspaper, flour and a bucket of what Mac suspected was water. They both saw Mac in the office and went back the way they went.

"Everything is back to normal," he muttered to himself as he woke up Reed.

Reed moaned. He squinted open an eye. "What, Mac?"

"What did you do to Don and Danny?"

"I got Adam to help me fill their lockers with expandable foam that doesn't come out so easy."

"What did they do to you?"

"Gave me a shirt coated in frosting. On the inside."

"Wasn't this after you switched their coffee with hot chocolate made with salt?"

"That was after they got me at your party with the string, the invisible ink and the devil horns in the picture. I'm just paying them back."

"Well, watch it; they're going to paper mache your ass."

"I'm use to it. Couple of guys on the basketball did it to me and several other reporters. It was worse than what Danny and Don have planned."

Mac set the lab coat down on the table and took a chair. He sat across Reed. "What happened?"

Reed sat up. "We were covering the latest game of the Chelsea..."

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**February 2007 **

"And we're down to the final ten minutes of the game with Chelsea leading against Riverton, sixty-six to forty-three," the announcer screamed into the microphone as everyone cheered for their team. Reed Garrett sat up front with all the Chelsea students cheering. He had his notepad out and was recording all the major shots that tied, passed the other team or were just really good shots.

Sitting next to him were Logan Mars and Dick Sullivan. Both were following certain players on the team. Reed was there to take down the game. He was filling in for Chloe, Dick's twin sister. She had been sick for the past week and just saw a doctor that day to find out she had appendicitis in the works. Now, she was at the hospital, being prepped for surgery the next day while he had to cover her assignments for the next week. _There's nice weather and I'm covering for someone. Great timing. _

"And Riverton loses the lead as Justin Dunn gains three points for Chelsea," the announcer screamed again. Everyone behind the reporters cheered and they had to cover their ears at the raise in decibels.

Reed waited until it had died down. "That was a good one for Dunn," he hedged, trying to get a something out of Dick. Logan had taken to him in a week, probably because he had been friends with Brian. Dick didn't like him, and probably had what he thought was a good reason. Reed was doubling on all his classes so he could graduate early. He was a sophomore in a junior year. He had half of his freshman credits done by the time he actually went to college. He took classes during the summer and by his second full year of college; he had enough credits to be called a junior. Dick thought he shouldn't have been on the paper; he's too young.

The only time Dick hadn't thought that was right after Brian's death. Reed had come in, still bruised after the beating from Eddie Williams, to turn in the article that had gotten Brian killed and himself beaten. The editor had already been told not to publish the article and it was after Chloe, Logan, Dick and several other reporters had threatened to walk off that the editor relented. Dick had told him that he had guts to come in and still try to turn in a story that got someone killed, a lot more guts than several senior reporters that had been on when he was a freshman. He went back to the 'he's too young' stance in a week.

Logan was following Eddie Hartley, who was second to Justin in points on the team and associate captain with Teddy Cahill. He had the most promising career after college. Several NBA teams were looking at signing him on. He already had endorsement deals from companies. More were on the way if he signed up on a team.

"And that is the end of the game. Chelsea, seventy-six. Riverton, fifty-eight," the announcer confirmed as the buzzer sounded and everyone started cheering again. Reed checked his notebook and found he had missed a couple of times when Chelsea had gotten ahead. He went down and took a few notes from the guys running the cameras at corners of the court. He was one of the few stragglers left when he finally left for his dorm room.

The courtyard had plenty of spaces where you could hide out and wait for someone. Reed stayed to the lighted area, but it didn't stop three guys from stepping out and ambushing him. Two of the guys held his arms while a third wrapped duct tape around his mouth. "Move him to the tree. We left all the stuff there," a voice ordered. Reed was marched over to the tree that was right next to the statue of the founder of the college.

There was a bucket of a white substance along with a bag of newspaper cut up into strips. "Congratulations Reed, you are the twentieth person that is part of this time honored tradition. We players of the basketball team have taken five reporters each year after the Riverton game and paper mached them. Just for the hell of it. I started it freshman year," the voice said. Light flashed from the side to show Justin Dunn in front of him. On the sides were Teddy Cahill and another player that Reed didn't recognize.

The two guys holding him started stripping him of his jacket and shirt. That was tossed to the side and they wrestled with him to get his pants off. Reed was left in his boxers after his shoes and socks were thrown away. Justin had the honor and started spreading ready to made strips along Reed's shoulders. The paste was cold against his skin and he shivered worse when each strip was applied to his skin. He started with binding the arms to his chest. He did this a few times before going straight across the chest to cover the gap. The only part of the arms that weren't covered was the wrists and hands, which had been held by the two.

"We'll start on the legs. You wanna finish the back?" the unknown player asked.

"Yeah, if we want to finish in time. He came out late," Justin answered. The pressure off his wrists was lifted and Reed started struggling against the paper. "Don't even try it. I've perfected it so the stuff starts hardening a minute after applying." A couple of strips were applied to his wrists and he could only move his hands after that.

Two hours had passed and Justin stood back to appreciate his work. Except for his head, Reed was covered in paper mache. It was hard already and he was having a hard time breathing from the pressure of the strips on his chest. "Let's get going for the people to find our work," Justin said, applying one more strip across the eyes and pushing him to the ground. They started laughing and walked off, carrying the supplies with them.

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The first sigh of people, Reed started yelling as loud as he could. He couldn't get near anything to make sounds to get their attention. He kept yelling until he heard running feet and someone giving orders. "Lindsay, get the solution out of my kit," a familiar voice said. _Stella? _His thought was answered as he heard her telling him something. "Reed, close your eyes." He kept his eyes close until he felt a liquid running over them after the paper had been taken off.

Stella and Lindsay had to step back as the two medics came over and lifted him off the ground. He was rushed over to the waiting ambulance. Detective Angell standing by Lindsay as Stella offered to ride with Reed. "It's going to be easier to take the paper off at the hospital," one of the medics explained as she started to grab some solution.

"What about the tape?"

"Ran out of that taking off the tape off the last one."

"Damn. All right, Reed. I'm going to call Mac as soon as we're at the hospital." Reed started shaking his head. "You don't want me to call Mac?" He nodded. "Okay, what about your parents?" He rolled his eyes. "Not here?" He nodded. "Where are they when you need them?" He laughed through his gag and gazed at the ceiling for the trip to the hospital.

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He got his own little examination room. A nurse and Stella helped in taking off all the paper. When he was left in his boxers again, Stella started asking questions about what happened. He answered them most of the time. When it came to identifying the people, he told her he could only name two. "Are you sure you can't place the last one?" she insisted.

"There wasn't enough light. I couldn't recognize him."

"Anything about him that you could recognize? Voice? Walk?" Reed shook his head. "All right. There's one more thing. I need your boxers."

Reed looked at her. "I don't have any clothes."

"Reed…"

"What am I supposed to wear?"

"You could always…"

"Mac can't know. Besides, he can't help. My clothes are at my parents and at school."

"What about your roommate?"

"I could, but I'm not sure he's there."

"I'll call. What's his name?"

"Dan." Stella dialed his dorm phone and waited for an answer. She explained the situation to Dan and he agreed to bring down some clothes for Reed.

"All right, he'll be here in ten minutes." She pulled out a bag. He sighed and hid himself under the covers. He fangled them off and dropped them in the bag. "You know, you could tie that into a toga." His answer was a pillow in the face. "Okay. That doesn't work." She threw it back at him. "No telling Mac?"

"I don't want him to know."

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**May 2008**

"Why didn't you want me to know?" Mac asked him. Reed had started to yawn from the exhaustion and the fact he was woken up.

"What could you have done? They were going to walk anyway. Chelsea wasn't going to expel them; the team depended on him. It wouldn't have helped except enraged you. And that was the time you were focusing on Clay Dobson. You needed your entire mind focused on Clay and not me."

"You were their twentieth? Twentieth victim?"

"Yeah, he did five each year since he was a freshman."

"Did you know any of the other victims?"

"I didn't even know about it until it happened. They covered it up well." He dropped his gaze at the blanket he had balled on his legs.

Mac raised it back up. "Do you know if they still do it?"

He breathed deeply. "A couple of my friends on the paper have had it done to them. One of the people ended up in the hospital because of hypothermia. They were only fined."

"They haven't banned it; done anything to stop it the next time the players do this?" Reed shook his head. "Has anyone talked about it?"

"Articles aren't printed; people are sued for slander. Nobody wants to hear about their heroes doing something like this."

"What about you?"

"I had a note about it online and several of my friends were sympathetic, but right after, I got a digital threat. If I didn't take it off, several of my articles would be put to question for bad sources. I wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere."

"So what did you do?"

"Went to the dean of students and explained the threat. He told me that printing false items on the internet was warrant enough. They got to him before I did. Told everyone that if they wanted a copy, they had to copy and save by a certain time before I deleted it."

"Did you save a copy?"

"Yeah."

"I want to see it." Reed looked at him. "I want to read it."

"Mac…"

"Reed, let me decide. Send me a copy." Reed nodded. "Now, get back to sleep. I'll take you back to your apartment after shift."

"Okay." Reed lay back down and Mac waited for deep breathing before leaving the lab. He saw Flack and Danny and walked over to them.

"Hey Mac, what you saw…" Danny started.

"Plan a different prank."

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Okay, I was going to throw the names of three actors in here, but I decided that I might get yelled at in reviews (by them, because I have this strange mind that says I'm going to be yelled at for putting them in my stories), so I mixed up their names. Here's the key. S- Justin, CSI NY- Eddie, VM- Teddy.

Also, Logan took Veronica's name when they married. Dick found out that his father had an affair and in the process had twins with Chloe's mother. Chloe's parents kept her, but gave Dick to him. He changed his last name to get away from the bad luck surrounding Casablancas. (I'm joking. I thought it would be a funny gag.)

And, Riverton is from _Inspector Gadget_. I have no idea why that came up in my mind at that point in time.

Another disclaimer: I don't own _Inspector Gadget, VM _or_ S._

Review please. Green is in, especially with reviews. And arrows.


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